John Seymour on Sport Fishing

I often think of this characteristically amusing John Seymour quote from the section “Fish” of his wonderful book, “Farming for Self-Sufficiency”

“The industrial working man’s sport of catching fish out of the fresh water canals, lakes and streams, weighing them, and throwing them back again, is as puerile as pulling wings off flies, but I suppose it is better than watching hired men playing football, for at least it gets its devotees away from a crowd. The men who do it will solemnly assure you that these fish are not edible anyway, and further that if they throw them back it will keep the stocks of fish up so other anglers have a chance. They are wrong on both counts. There is no freshwater fish that lives in England that I know of that is not excellent to eat. And to crop, or harvest, the fully grown fish is good for the stocks, in that it gives the younger ones a chance to live and thrive. It is very good for the health and welfare of a stock of fish in any piece of water to remove the full grown fish that have had a chance to breed one or twice and allow the younger generations some room.” – 1973